Alan Gayle is a sales and marketing consultant specialising in the construction industry. In this column he offers advice on how to make an impact in the market. This time he has some advice on what exactly marketing entails.
So what exactly do you do?
I’ve been asked this question so many times I’m able to rattle off my elevator pitch without blinking.
But before I go any further, let me quickly clarify what an elevator pitch is: it’s a short summary used to define a product / service or company quickly and simply.
The name ‘elevator pitch’ reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time span of a ride in a lift (or elevator) – approximately thirty seconds to a minute.
Personally, I think ‘lift pitch’ would be far better (it even almost rhymes). But despite the obvious Americanism of ‘elevator lift’ it can be a useful marketing tool and I always advocate having one as part of your Marketing Plan.
Anyway, back to what we marketing consultants actually do. Essentially we help to fill the gaps between where a company is and where it wants to be. We help achieve growth and increase profits.
Of course, there’s usually a lot more to achieving sustainable growth than marketing alone, although, as any of the
MBA-wielding business consultants or famous self-made billionaires will tell you: it’s definitely one of the key elements.
Marketing precedes sales and it’s purpose is to make your sales process easier, quicker and far more profitable. In the words of the immortal Peter Drucker, the Henry Ford of marketing: “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.”
How does that actually work?
In the same way that most of you will choose to pay more for Dunlop, Michelin or Goodyear tyres for your cars rather than a brand you’ve never heard of, even though they all conform to the same British Standards, our potential customers are far more likely to choose us rather than competitor – and pay us a higher price – if they are more familiar with our company than the competitor.
Familiarity encourages confidence and trust, which are the magic ingredients of reducing perceived risk.
Reducing risk in the building industry is the key to making more money.
Look at Kingspan or Metsec. They can charge more than their competitors yet still sell more. No doubt their marketing budgets would make your eyes water, but they deliver the results for them.
The same can be said of countless smaller companies that dominate their own markets.
The services marketing consultants provide varies from websites and email campaigns to case studies and brochures, but the services themselves are not as important as the method of delivery.
Our business has three levels of service. On Level 1, we can use our knowledge and expertise to provide you with the information you need to increase sales and profits in the form of a strategic Marketing Plan, which you read and implement yourself. On Level 2, after we create the Marketing Plan, we will work with you to train the relevant people in your company to ensure they can implement it properly. On Level 3, by far the most common, we will create the Marketing Plan then work with you on an
on-going basis to implement it.
It’s a bit like servicing your car. You can buy the Haynes manual and work it out for yourself. If you get stuck, you can take it to your local garage and ask someone to show you what to do. Or you can contact the main dealership and ask them to collect the car, service it, clean it and return it to your house, so it’s all done for you when you get home.
Not only is it done, it’s done to a higher standard than the first two options because the technician at the main dealer is a specialist with a workshop full of the right tools.
With the dawn of the information age and the advent of the internet, the way we do business has changed fundamentally. The tools we use for effective marketing in 2013 are significantly different to those we used even 10 years ago. If you want to get ahead of the competition, or even just maintain your market position but increase your margins and you don’t want to spend months studying the Haynes manual, a marketing agency with the knowledge of the building industry is probably the best way forward.
There is not room here to include my own Elevator Pitch, but I strongly suggest you create one of your own that everyone in your company uses.
Each person will say it in their own way, but at least you’ll all be singing from the same
hymn-sheet. If you need some help, send me what you do and I will evaluate the first 10 readers’ Elevator Pitches emailed to alan@keystonecm.co.uk.